The Demon of Katze forest
by Von Fraug
Summary: An evening visit from Lupusregina has Enri Emmot telling an old fairy tale she learn from her parents. (i wrote this just to get an idea out of my head, don't expect anything fancy)


Late one autumn night, Enri Emmot was working tirelessly for the sake of her village. She had been told on three separate occasions that the goblins would take care of the manual labor, and that she only needed to observe and coordinate the winter preparations, and she had objected three separate times. Something about this time of year filled her with a unique sense of urgency and restlessness. She could only surmise that this was due to one to many winters where her father had to trudge out into the snowdrifts to fell a tree for firewood.

So here she was, splitting enough logs to build a house with. It was such a busy time of year; food needed to be preserved, houses needed to be re-insulated, fields needed to be harvested, and wood needed to be chopped.

As she set her ax down at the mouth of the overflowing wood shed, an all too familiar scent grazed her nostrils for the first time in many months: the smell of snow.

That was what she called it, anyway, the moon hidden somewhere in a heavily overcast sky, the sharp cold of the air she breathed, and the faint breeze carrying small sparkles of light could mean nothing else. As she broke through the wall of warmth that swept over her upon opens her front door, two familiar voices filled her ears, one trampling the other. "Oh dear, Lupu seems to have visited quite late again, does she ever sleep?" Enri wondered.

"Well if it isn't the great chief herself" the werewolf crowed, "Your pet here has been trying to keep me entertained, and is failing miserably."

"Hey wait, I'm not a-" Nfirea had tried to object, but got drowned out immediately. "I really don't care about plants, but your little sheepdog over here wouldn't stop blabbing on about them."

Enri let out a small sigh, this was an all-too-common situation she had just gotten used to. "Alright Lupu, you seemed to enjoy the story I told last time, and this time of year brings back an old story my parents used to tell me"

"Is it another one about the wise king of the forest? I hear that guy is a weakling"

"No, this one is a very old story about a place not too far from here, and how it used to be completely different. In fact, there used to be nothing but forest for hundreds of kilometers around here."

"_500 years ago, there was a great forest called Katze. It was located at the ends of three three separate mountain ranges and was rich with magic. Many great beasts found nowhere else called this forest home. The beasts fed upon the wild magic that flowed through the ground, as well as each other. This land was once considered untameable, but this was about to change. To the south of the forest was a brand new-country: The Slane Theocracy. Seeing the riches of this forest, the theocracy founded a private force to explore and collect the secrets it held. But something in the forest was stirring. Some of The new 'Adventurers' where coming home traumatized with horrible festering wounds, even if they were only wounded hours prior. The ones that survived long enough to tell their tale spoke of an impossibly huge mansion in the forest, 5 floors high. Those brave enough to venture inside of it report it having a maze of rooms and hallways that would change every time they would pass through a doorway. The mansion was reported to be in a state of disrepair, and survivors mention falling through rotten floorboards only to look up and see no hole that they could have fallen through. Those lucky enough to survive and return all reported the same thing: they had been teleported out of the building by a horrible demon._

Lupusregina perked up, the story had just caught her interest. "This demon, tell me move about him."

Enri smiled, this was exactly what she had expected her to do.

"_It was three meters tall, had goat-like legs and eyes, and thick black fur on its lower body. It wore nothing but a huge coat and ten rings, and clammy grey skin. It had a beard and horns, both like a goat's, and even the strongest adamantite adventurers reported never feeling it's presence, even when it was right behind them. All the survivors had came back alone, claiming the demon had walked out of the shadows and placed its giant misshapen hand upon them, and the next thing they knew, they would be outside the front doors of the mansion. The terror wasn't over, however, as the place were the demon had touched them soon began to rot. The only ones who made it out of the forest were those who fled the mansion and their party members immediately, only to expire from their injuries soon after arriving at the nearest town. Those who made it back to town would expire shortly afterwards, and doctors would notice eyes growing from the rot after the adventurer died. Soon, doctors would start burning every corpse that came from the forest. This would only occur once every few years, and about 50 years after the first report of the demon, the last god of the theocracy still incarnated; the god of death, took notice. The adventurers rejoiced, for their problems with the demon would soon be over, but this was not the case. Upon leaving the forest, the god of death told the adventurers to leave the forest alone, as it was the demon's domain. Disappointed, but still fearful of the demon's wrath, the adventurers ceased all activity that involves venturing deep into the forest, and the demon was soon old news. _

_50 years later, upon the arrival of the 8 lords of greed, the god of death would start visiting the forest regularly, up until his destruction at the hands of the eight. The forest was then frequented by the 8 lords, eager to seek audience with the demon._

_See, the greed lords never got along terribly well with each other, but often went to the mansion to resolve their disputes. The Katze Demon was unconcerned with the going-ons of the outside world, so he was used by the lords as a third party, dividing up land and treasure between them. And for a time, he left his abode and traveled with them, gathering knowledge from across the world. All of this changed, however, when the Greed lords started hunting dragonlords. The demon was adamantly opposed to this plan, but the 8 paid him no heed. Knowing he stood now chance against them, he once again shut himself in his mansion, unaware of the disaster that would fall upon him. _

_Lead by the platinum Dragonlord and two lesser Dragonlords, a swarm of dragons descended on his forest and leveled both it, and his precious mansion. He fought ferociously, but he was alone, and as he died, he dissolved into the very soil he was laying upon. For 150 years, he had studied the forest and it's wild magic, and as he perished, he had attempted to graft his wretched soul onto the very land itself. The platinum Dragonlord realized this, and consumed the land's magic; a portion of the soul of the world, to prevent it. The forest was gone, burned by the fire of dozens of dragons, and absorbed by the Platinum Dragonlord. All that remained was a wasteland tainted by the Katze Demon's foul magic. Trees wouldn't grow, grass would get now higher than a few centimeters, and the dead would wake in the night. This was the birth of the Katze plains._

"Is that it?" Said Lupusregina, half disappointed and half intrigued.

"I don't know much more than that, it happened 350 years ago"

Lupusregina sighed quietly. "Well, it's been fun, but I've got to get back to lord Ainz, I have some news to tell him about. Have fun with your pet, Chief".

Before Nfirea could object, the maid was already out the door, sailing on the night winds.

"That was an interesting story, is it very well known? I haven't heard it before."

"I'm not too sure, dad would tell it to us about this time every year. I'm pretty sure there was a moral to it, but I can't remember one. He was probably just trying to scare me out of venturing into the woods again."

Enri peered outside; the first few flakes of snow were starting to fall. "It's come early this year, I hope we make it through the winter" she worried.


End file.
